Every Lonely Monster
by Sam's Obsessed
Summary: Not all of the Doctor's travels are televised. Clara and The Doctor have adventures between episodes.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first attempt at Whoufflé Fan Fiction (Or any Fan Fiction for that matter) It's not overly shippy, I'm trying to write it as though it was an episode of Doctor Who, so hopefully people can enjoy it even if they don't ship Clara and Eleven. I'm going to shut up now and get on with it.**

**Set between Cold War and Hide. A multi-chapter fic with Susan, just because I wanted Clara to meet her. (Please review :) Thank you.)**

* * *

Whirring as it materialised, the Doctor managed to land the TARDIS almost perfectly. Near the Maitland's home yet tucked round the corner, out of the way from prying eyes. The doors opened and out stepped Clara Oswald.

"So…" The Doctor hesitated fumbling with his fingers, "I'll pick you up again same time next week." He wasn't used to this, normally his companions would stay with him, but not Clara. Clara was something new, something he didn't understand, and not just because he'd seen her die twice.

"Hah, how do to know I'll want to come back after spending so long cramped in that submarine with you, I might just be beginning to get a bit sick of you!" Dejected, the Doctor's face fell, his frown lines becoming more pronounced.

"Oh." The doctor was stunned, he looked down at his feet, his brain struggling to process what his ears had just heard.

Instantly Clara realised her mistake. "Hey!" She said ducking and positioning herself so that the Doctor could see her face beaming up at him. "Only joking, of course I'm not getting tired of you." she pinched the Doctor's cheeks, moving his face up so he was looking at her as she returned to her natural stance.

"Ah, yes of course…I…I knew that." His companion raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "I'm a thousand year old Time Lord, I know everything that has ever been and ever will be" The Doctor boasted, straightening his bow tie and defending his statement.

"Right, Mr Time Lord, _sure_ you know everything." Clara walked away towards the house and away from the TARDIS, smiling and bouncing as she moved.

"Oi" The Doctor moved one foot out of his TARDIS, pointing at the girl. "I can tell when you're being sarcastic. You know, you're not very good at it!" Clara smiled, her back still facing the Doctor she waved her hand as though dismissing him. "They say sarcasm's the lowest form of wit!" The Doctor shouted down the road to Clara.

Clara turned around and let out a small giggle, "Goodbye Doctor, really. I'll see you next Wednesday." She waved towards the Doctor as the groaning sound began and the TARDIS disappeared.

As she got to the front door, Clara rummaged through her bag feeling for her keys. _I really should clean this thing out,_ Clara thought to herself, struggling to find her keys. It didn't matter the door opened for her.

On the other side was Angie, she opened the door with one hand, and in the other she held her carer's keys. "Looking for these?" The teenager rattled the keys in front of Clara's face.

"Angie!" Clara exclaimed with surprise. "You're not meant to be home for another hour." Clara hoped what she was saying was true, but with the Doctor she never knew if she was going to arrive on time or not.

"What are you talking about," The girl said with a slight hint of distain in her voice, "It's Wednesday, you know I finish school at two on Wednesdays!"

"Sorry, I completely forgot! I was just busy with…" Clara paused, she struggled to think of a way she could describe her travels with the Doctor. "…Stuff." Clara walked inside the house, shutting the door behind her.

"Is that what you call it when you go off with your secret boyfriend?"

"I'm sorry? My what?" Clara felt more than a little awkward as she followed Angie through the living room and put the kettle on.

"Oh come on." Angie smirked. "You keep disappearing off in the middle of the day, whenever I try and where you've been you blush and try to deflect the question. You're obviously hiding something, and it doesn't take a genius to work out what."

"Okay, s'pose I am hiding something," Clara decided to play along with Angie's idea. "Which I'm not!" she added quickly, before the girl got the wrong idea. "What makes you think I've got some sort of 'secret boyfriend'?" She mimed quotes with her fingers as she said it.

Angie made a mock laugh "Goodbye Doctor, really." She imitated Clara's voice rather convincingly. Irritated, Clara didn't say anything, she just gave Angie a cold glare. "So who is this "Doctor' guy then, why do you call him Doctor, what's his real name?" Angie interrogated Clara with rapid questions, none of which Clara knew the answer to.

"Don't you have some homework to be getting on with." Clara growled at the teen through gritted teeth.

"No." replied Angie innocently. "And you have to tell me about your boyfriend."

Clara let out an exasperated sigh. "He's not my boyfriend, he's just a friend who takes me out to places and we have fun."

"Like a date? Yeah, he's definitely your boyfriend."

The kettle had finished boiling, Clara poured the boiling water into her mug. "You want some tea?"

"Urgh, No." Angie looked at Clara as though she had just suggested she drink from the toilet bowel.

"Suit yourself." Clara finished making her drink and sat down in the living room next to Angie. "Turn the TV on, see if there's anything decent on." The TV flashed to life.

"Are exams getting to easy? We talk to the Education Secretary - Michael Gove - next."

"The news? Boring!" Angie crossed her arms and slouched back in her chair.

"It'll only be on for a bit, I've got to go pick up Artie soon anyway. Besides, you don't have to watch it." Clara took another sip of her tea, but almost spat it out again when she saw what was on the news next.

"But before that we have an exclusive interview with the last surviving crew member of the Firebird, a soviet submarine that almost started a Nuclear war."

"Quick! Change the channel!" Clara shouted at Angie.

"What? Why?"

Clara had to quickly think a reason. "Just change it! I'll pay you a tenner."

Quick as a flash Angie changed the channel "Done! Why'd you want to change it so bad?"

"Because" Clara's non-answer seemed to half satisfy Angie's curiosity.

"Whatever, you're really weird. I'll grab a tenner from your bag." Angie left the room and Clara breathed a sigh of relief. "Hey, there's some weird metal thing in here!" there was an alien electronic sound, and Clara knew exactly what Angie had discovered.

Clara ran over to Angie, and snatched the screwdriver from her grasp. "Hey." Angie moaned at her Nanny. "That's not fair, I was looking at that!"

"How'd the Doctor's screwdriver get in my bag?" Clara murmured to herself.

"What was that?" Angie teased Clara. "Did I hear something about your boyfriend?"

"You… just, Shut up." _I'm even beginning to sound like him now! _"I'm gonna go and pick up Artie from school, and when I get back, you're going to forget we ever had this conversation. Alright?" and with that she slammed the door before Angie could dispute the situation further.

* * *

A week passed, the first few days went quickly for Clara, Angie had stopped asking after the Doctor and life went on as usual. But life couldn't, not after everything she'd been through with the Doctor. One day she'd be fighting a living sun God, the next she'd be siting at the Maitland's trying to perfect her Mum's soufflé. How does someone go back to a normal life? Was it even possible?

But the nearer Wednesday it got, the harder it became to carry on. She wasn't just missing the adventures, the planets or even the aliens, well… Maybe she did miss one alien in particular. The Doctor, she never had a friend quite like him, he was clever, so clever and funny and he really needed and cared about her as though if he didn't have her traveling with him, he might just break apart into a thousand pieces. She missed when he got all awkward and flustered, his big chin, even his bow tie. And despite the fact that he was 1,200 years old and from another planet, another race, it was simple. Just two good friends, best friends even, no strings attached.

_This is stupid, Clara._ She thought to herself, Y_ou hardly know the man! It's hardly been a month, less for him probably, he can just fast forward Wednesday to Wednesday. How can you say he's your best friend! _Clara didn't have many friends, she had a group that she used to be close to during University, they'd planned to go off and see the world together. But a week before she left Angie and Artie's Mum passed away. Clara knew what it was like to lose a Mum, she couldn't just abandon the kids.

So while her friends spent the year going all round the world, Clara was stuck here, as a permanent babysitter. Now it was her turn to see not just the world, but the universe and the was no one she'd rather see it with than the Doctor.

The sun just started to peak over the horizon, the deep dark blue of night had turned into light blue with lines orange. Into Clara Oswald's Bedroom rays of light burst through her curtains, shining onto her face. But it wasn't this that woke Clara, it was the loud moaning like sound of the TARDIS that woke her.

"Hello!" The Doctor announced his arrival from beyond Clara's window.

Clara turned over in her bed. Groaning as she slowly she moved her head to face her clock. 5:32. Clara quickly moved over to the window to talk down to the Doctor.

"Hello, are you there Miss Oswald?!" The Doctor called up once again flailing with his arms as Clara pulled the curtains aside.

"You mind now waking me up?! I was sleeping!" Clara shouted as quietly as she could trying not to disturb the kids.

"Why on earth were you doing that?" The man sounded genuinely confused. "Anyway, never mind, I'm here, just like I said I'd be."

Clara pushed her bed hair out of her face as she drearily replied. "Okay three things." she counted on her fingers. "Firstly, It's half five, of course I'm gonna be sleeping. Secondly could you mind keeping it down, Mr Maitland may be out, but the kids are still asleep. And finally," she added "Why did you have to park the Snog box in the back garden?"

"She's not a Snog Box!" The Doctor protested, "How do you expect her to like you if you keep calling her names like that!?"

"It locked me out!"

"Well you insulted her first." the Doctor paused for a moment, looking at his impossible girl, his mystery, who could she be, what could she be? "Well come on then, oh and bring that book of yours too."

Clara retreated out of the Doctors view. Once she reappeared she was holding a book in her hand, waving it out of her bedroom window. "The Amelia Williams one?"

The alien in the garden froze, his jovial smile fading from his face. He turned his head to face the ground, hiding the tears welling up in his eyes from sight. Just for a second the pain came flooding back to him. "No, no, not that one." Just as quickly he snapped out of his depression, wiped away his tears before returning to face Clara. Those dark times were over, Clara helped him get out of them even if she couldn't remember, and he wasn't going back there again. "Your one, the book with all the places you want to see."

"Oh, right" Clara called back, disappearing from the Doctor's sight again. "Got it!" she called from her room.

"Fantastic!" Said the Doctor in a mock Northern accent. "Come on then, hurry up!"

Clara's head appeared once again at the window. "Give me time to get changed! I'm still in my nightie!"

The Doctor gave Clara a puzzled look "So?"

Clara raised an eyebrow. "You want me to come and join you in that box wearing nothing but a nightie? Looks like someone's a bit eager, down boy!" She teased.

The Doctor gave Clara his best _how could you even suggest such a thing _face. His lips moved as though trying to form a retort, but after a few seconds, resigned in frustration.

Clara laughed. "I'll be down in five minutes, don't do anything while I'm changing, or you'll wake up Angie and Artie."

The Doctor gave Clara an elaborate military style salute, making her laugh again.

He retreated into his box for a moment, when he returned he held a foldable chair. The Doctor had leant a few things about women in his travels, and he knew that when one said she'd just be 'five minutes" getting changed it could take anything up to an hour. He set up his chair and got comfy.

Not even sixty seconds had passed before the Doctor started to get bored. He needed to be doing something, he frantically fumbled through his massive jacket pockets - which, like his ship they were bigger on the inside - realising he was missing something. "Clara!" He yelled, before remembering that there were others in the house. "Sorry." he whispered.

After about ten minutes of waiting, the Doctor heard the sound of a door opening then closing again. He rushed round the side of the house to get round to the front. "Clara! My Sonic-" Without saying anything Clara reached into her red bag and pulled out the Screwdriver, brandishing it in front of her face and flashing the Doctor a sly smile.

The Doctor rushed towards the screwdriver, snatching it from the girl's hand "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" the Doctor exclaimed rapidly, repeatedly kissing the device as a slightly bewildered Clara watched on.

"You're welcome?"

The Doctor looked ahead at Clara again. "Oh, sorry." the Doctor bent over and gave the impossible girl a peck on the forehead. "That better?"

Flinching slightly, Clara replied the Doctor, who had already folded his chair and was heading inside the TARDIS. "Someone's in a good mood."

The Doctor span round 180 degrees. "What can I say, it's just one of those days!" he stepped into the TARDIS, reappearing a few seconds later. "Come along Clara." he beckoned her to come inside.

Clara entered the box, shutting the door behind her. "So spaceman, what's put you in such a good mood that you have to come and wake me up this early?"

"You're lucky I even managed to get here today! Sexy really doesn't like you, this was the closest time I could land her."

"Sexy?"

"Oh that's just whaticallhersometimeswhenwe-" The Doctor's voice trailed off into nothing, mumbling in his embarrassment.

"Oh, so that's how it is. Should I give you two some space?" Clara teased the Time Lord.

"No it is not _how it is_!" The Doctor said defiantly. The TARDIS groaned upon the Doctor finishing.

"That's not what it's saying." Clara retorted.

"The TARDIS isn't an it, she's a thing of beauty." He stroked the console as he said so, seemingly calming the TARDIS. "and she should be treated with respect."

"So what's the news then? What're we doing today?" Clara was quick to move the conversation back to the more important and less awkward topic.

"Well seeing as I didn't have anything big planned today so I thought we'd have a look through your book and just go where you fancied." The Doctor paused.

"Buuuuut?" Clara stressed the word. "I'm sensing a but here."

"But, and here's the really good part, the TARDIS just got a message from the 22nd century!" The Doctor waved a piece of paper that looked like it was from an old telegram.

Clara sighed, lent back and folded her arms. "Right, and this is supposed to be exciting for me because?"

"It's not what was in it, it's just an invitation, it's who it was from."

Interested, she uncrossed her arms and leant forward. "Who?"

"It's from my Granddaughter."


	2. Chapter 2

"Your Granddaughter?" Clara finally said after a long silence.

"Yes my Granddaughter," A slightly irritated Doctor replied. "I thought I already told you about her, back on Akhaten."

"Okay, sorry, it's just…. I'm struggling to produces the image of you as a father, let alone a grandfather."

"Why don't you think I could be a dad? I'm great with children!" The Doctor noticed that Clara was hiding her laughter with her palm, he pulled her hand down. "Don't laugh 'till you've seen it." the Doctor raised one finger in a 'eureka moment' "I could look after the kids!"

"I don't think so!" Clara put her foot down there. "If I left you alone with them, you'd probably get them kidnapped by some alien."

"Well yes" The Doctor said it as though it were a given. "But they'd have fun."

"Okay, so what did this message say, and how can you get a message from the 22nd century"

As they talked the Doctor moved in circles round the central console, followed by Clara. "The second one's simple, the TARDIS has a super phone, not the one on the outside, that's shouldn't ring, I'd it rings we've got problems, it can pick up messages from anywhere in time and space, well in this case a fax, but it runs on the same principle. The fact that I just got it now rather than, say, 100 years ago is just luck."

"Yes, but what did the message say!" Clara grabbed the Doctor's shoulders, spinning him round and making him keep in place, in the hope that it would help him get to the point.

"Right, rambling, sorry." The Doctor was struggling to get complete sentences out. "Susan, my Granddaughter, actually, you know what maybe I should give the the background details first…" Clara's left eyebrow rose and she gave the Doctor a sarcastic smirk. "Honest, it'll save time later. Right, back when I was a lot younger, well I say younger but I was actually older." The Doctor waved his hand as if rubbing away his idea off a whiteboard. "I left Susan with a freedom fighter in the future, well your future, and didn't see her for a long while. Last time I met her, from her point of view at least, would've been about…" he paused and counted on his fingers, going over each one twice. "Twenty years later, she had a family and kids of her own, but she hardly looked any older than nineteen, she's like me you s-"

Clara cut him off. "Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah" she said rapidly, her _woahs _running into each other "So you're not just a dad and a grandad, you're a great grandad! Blimey, you don't look much older than me!"

"Ah yes, but looks can be deceiving, for instance take the time I-" Clara gave him a face saying _get on with it _"Ah right, not important, anyway she says the Grandkids are fine, Alex had some trouble at school but… I'll just skip this bit for you." He quickly scammed the letter for important news. "Blah blah blah blah….and people have been disappearing…. Oh, she sends her love to Barbara and Ian, that's nice, I'll tell them that when I see them next." The Doctor sat the piece of paper down on the console as he finished reading through it.

"I'm guessing, then, that we're going for the disappearing people reason, not just to meet the family?"

"Well it might be nice seeing Susan again, it's been centuries for me, but I suppose it won't have been that long from her point of view." The Doctor began messing with the console, setting it up for the journey. "I wonder what she'll make of me having a new companion." That last sentence was said more to himself than to Clara.

"Companion?"

"Well what would you rather be called? Assistant?"

Clara sounded a bit hurt. "How about friend?"

"I've had lots of friends, not all of them travel with me." as he said that the Doctor's eyes glazed over, as though his consciousness was elsewhere, but beneath the mask, Clara could see the pain, the suffering, the loss.

Clara motioned to touch the TARDIS console, the Doctor quickly slapped her hand away. "You can't just go pressing buttons willy nilly, Otherwise she'll never go to where you want."

"That's all you seem to do."

"Yes" The Doctor replied irritatedly "but I actually know what I'm doing."

"So how come we ended up in a submarine when we were supposed to be going to Vegas?"

"Yes but…" There wasn't really any reason for why the TARDIS when where it did, the Doctor knew that. "….well I've never wrecked her yet, well not completely."

"Well if you don't think I should touch it, maybe you should teach me how to use it?" Clara suggested.

The Doctor dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand. "Maybe some other time." He pulled a lever and the TARDIS began to move. "Right now, I've got to focus on getting us to the right time, I've been here before, not that long ago and after what happened last time I don't think the time circuits will like this journey, so I don't want to end up in the wrong time and cross my time stream by mistake."

"Is it bad if you do?"

"Well normally whenever I do it's either perfectly fine or the end of reality, I don't want to find out which one it'll be this time!"

The TARDIS shook increasingly violently before stopping and letting out a gushing sound of relief. "I think we've landed." the Doctor said, pointing towards the door. "Well, go on then, take a look outside."

"Where…sorry, when are we?"

"Good question Clara, we are in the year 2194 and we haven't moved an inch, same street as we where before, just 181 years in the future." The Doctor paused and waited for Clara to step out. "So, what do ya think?"

Clara stepped out and the view was, underwhelming. "It's a bit, boring."

"Boring?! It's a marvel!" The doctor follower her out, spreading his arms out wide, like he was absorbing the view with his arms.

The city didn't look much different to how it looked when they left, most of the buildings had been replaced and looked a lot plainer in colour. There were a lot less green spaces and off in the distance Clara could see several domed buildings. But it was still very recognisably London.

There was an unnatural feel to the city, it felt as though it had all been planned out, more robotic than organic. Every building Clara could see was twice the height it was in her time. People had ran out of room to build on more land horizontally, so they had to expand vertically the Doctor told her, explaining the changes. The streets were littered with wheelless cars that floated just above the ground.

"It's almost two hundred years in the future, I thought the human race would've advanced further."

"You have to give them credit, for almost 10 years this planet was controlled by the Daleks, that set technology back a long way. But just look at it, there's cars! That hover! Now if you don't think Hovercars are cool-"

"Hold on, even if there were these Dalek things here, surely that wouldn't have made such a huge difference."

"Clara" The Doctor got right up in the girls face as he said this, stern but gentle. "Do you even know what a Dalek is?"

"Of course not! Why would I?" How could he expect Clara to know what some obscure alien that she'd never met was.

"No reason." The Doctor nonchalantly replied. "And hopefully you never will." Clara moved her mouth to ask why but the Doctor interrupted her. "Just remember this, when you make a Dalek you subtract love and add hate, don't let them do that. I don't want to talk about it further, please."

"Okay." Clara put on a more cheerful 'sing-song' voice to lighten the mood. "Where we going to."

"Yes, about that. It's been quite a while, I may have forgotten where she lives."

"Don't you Time Lords have any special powers like being able to sense where others are?"

"No, we don't, that'd be a stupid power, we can breathe in space, sometimes, and regenerate, but can't find each other. And Susan's not a Time Lord, she's a Gallifreyan, Time Lord is a rank, it's a common misconception actually."

"Okay, enough with the space history lesson, if you have her phone, you could just call her, right?"

"Got no credit." The Doctor waved a mobile phone to show his point. "You wouldn't believe the bills you get calling other times!"

"Give it here!" Clara said, snatching the phone from the Doctor's hand. She fiddled with the screen for a moment before showing it to the Doctor. "Okay, I've set it up so you can track someone else's phone, she should be near by, she's just a few blocks that way." With that Clara took the Doctor by the arm and started walking at a brisk pace in the direction she had pointed.

"Hang on, Hang on, I'm the one who's supposed to be in charge here, not you!" The Doctor complained as Clara lead him street after street.

Clara stopped and turned to the Doctor as they neared Susan's house. "Is there anything else you want to tell me before we go in?"

"Not that I can think of, let me do the talking and we'll be fine." The Doctor rang the doorbell and, using his reflection in the glass as a mirror, he fixed his hair and straightened his bow tie. He was still doing so when Susan opened the door.

"Grandfather?" Susan looked at the young face in front of her, it was so different to the old face she knew, yet instantly recognisable.

"Susan!" The Doctor beamed opening his arms wide and embracing his Granddaughter. He released her and held her out at arms length for inspection. "You've been keeping yourself well."

"I'd say the same to you, but…" she paused, studying her Grandfather's new look. "What face is it now?"

"Eleven." The Doctor replied.

"Last I saw you were only on five."

"You'll have another me to look forward to seeing soon then." Said the Doctor cheerfully.

"Ahem" Clara cleared her throat, suddenly appearing behind the Doctor. "What do you mean, other you?"

The Doctor turned around to Clara and whispered to her. "I'll explain later."

"Oh, sorry I didn't see you there." Susan gave Clara a smile, as she smiled at Clara, she could see that the girl didn't even look an adult. Susan returned her attention to the Doctor. "I didn't know you were traveling with another Gallifreyan."

"What, Clara." The Doctor shook his head vigorously. "No, no, no, she's human." he knocked her forehead with his knuckles as if to prove his point. "One hundred percent human."

Susan pondered Clara, before relaxing. "Ah, I beg your pardon, you do look like someone I used to know back to the Citadel. Do come through, make yourselves comfortable." Susan showed her Grandfather and his companion through into the living room. There was little actually in the room, at one end there was a door leading to what Clara presumed was a kitchen and at the other end a one way window that looked out onto the streets without being able to be looked back upon. As far as furniture went, there was a sofa sofa, two armchairs, a coffee table and a TV that looked like it belonged from the 90s at the latest. "Would you like anything to drink, Clara?" Said Susan, playing the hostess.

"Tea please, one sugar."

She then asked "What about you Grandfather?"

"I'm not really feeling thirsty, but I could have some thing to eat."

As Susan left, Clara returned to questioning the Doctor. "So what's with this Eleven faces business?"

"I told you" The Doctor replied, trying not to be too overheard. "I'll explain later."

"But when it's later you'll still 'explain later' and later will never come!"

"Fine." grumbled the Doctor. "It's not even that interesting. Time Lords have a way we can cheat death, when we die we just get a new body, this is my Eleventh." Upon seeing that Clara looked confused he added. "What? Did you think I would've stayed this good looking after 1200 years?"

"Right." replied Clara, as if changing bodies was a completely mundane and normal task. "Also another thing," The Doctor jokingly sighed and rolled his eyes. "No, I'm being serious, this one's actually important! If we're so far in the future, how come things like the TV look old, even from my time?"

"You humans are such sentimental creatures, nostalgia's sweeping the world, it's retro!"

"But, like, having a TV that small, it's impractical, what's the point!"

"That's just fashion, if you think that's stupid you should've seen what the other Time Lords wore and Gallifrey!"

At this moment Susan returned, carrying a tray with two cups of tea, and an assortment of snacks.

"I didn't know what kind of food your mouth liked this time." Susan said, placing the tray on the table. "So I brought a range."

"I'm honestly not that fussy" As the Doctor said so, Clara rolled her eyes, knowing full well how fussy he could be. He reached out and grabbed a handful and shoved it in his mouth to prove his point.

"I suppose I should get on with it and tell you why I need your help." Susan hurriedly moved the conversation forward. "It all began one-" Susan was cut off by the Doctor making gagging sounds.

He spat out the saliva covered, mangled remains of a sweet. It ended up as a sticky red lump on the edge of the tray, just missing the carpet. "Urgh, what was that?" The Doctor stuck his tongue out and rubbed it with his fingers, trying to clean it. Clara glared at him, slightly embarrassed. "What? I'm at my Granddaughter's house, I'm among family! I don't need to bother with human manners."

Even if Clara was mortified by the Doctor's social graces, Susan didn't seem phased, perhaps she'd known him for so long she'd gotten used to all of his mannerisms. "That was a jelly baby, I though you liked them!"

"Used to." The Doctor replied bluntly. "In fact, I probably will next time you see me, save them for then." The Doctor looked over the food this time, playing it safe with a Jammie Dodger this time.

"It all began a month ago." Susan continued. "David noticed it first, at work, people would just vanish, he'd be looking straight at them and then suddenly it was as though they were never there in the first place." Susan leant forward on her chair. "When I sent you the message, I told him to take the kids away from here, I told him that if it's bad now it will get worse once Grandfather arrives. You do usually bring trouble with you." Upon hearing this Clara nodded in agreement.

"Right." The Doctor rubbed his hands together in anticipation "That still isn't much to go on, is there any pattern, anywhere where this happens more often?"

"That's why I contacted you!" Susan raised her voice more. "Do you know where David and I work now?" The Doctor shook his head. "After the Daleks invaded, the people of this time decided to study what was left of their technology. We both know what Dalek technology is like, so I had to help, make sure it was safe. The Daleks were so advanced, so intricate and so numerous, that I've never been out of a job since." Susan was talking faster now, she paused to catch her breath, before lowering her voice a fraction. "It's always the people working on the Daleks!"


	3. Chapter 3

I won't normally be updating this quickly, but I had the third chapter ready, so I'm uploading it now. The chapter after this will be a shorter one, and we will find out what monster it is.

* * *

"It's not the Daleks!" The Doctor quickly blurted out. "Daleks don't do subtlety, they never have. They don't just make people vanish, they exterminate them. If there was even one Dalek here it would kill everyone it could not caring about getting caught, they kill because they see everything else as inferior. They'd want people to know they're here. Daleks don't hide in the shadows!"

"It couldn't be anything else."

"Susan." The Doctor looked his Granddaughter in the eyes. "It's not the Daleks."

"Great." Clara joined in. "So it's another alien I've got to learn about. Why is it wherever we go there's aliens?"

"I offered to take you to Vegas, I'm sure there wouldn't have been anything wrong there." Replied the Doctor.

"Well I'm glad that you've finally worked out how to pilot the thing." Susan interjected.

Laughing, Clara added "I wouldn't go that far."

"Oi you two, she gets us where we need to go."

Ignoring the Doctor Susan and Clara continued their chat. "So what does that TARDIS look like, is it still a police box?"

"It can change?" Clara had wondered why it was a police box, it was a bit of a rubbish disguise if you asked her.

"It used to be able to, but he broke the chameleon circuit." The Doctor was waving his hands and shouting trying to get the girls' attentions. "So does he still do that thing where-"

"Yes!" The Doctor separated the two by standing between them, having a strong feeling of deja vu. "If you don't mind we've actually got a job to do here. Now Susan, can you take us to where the sightings were." He paused. "Or lack thereof."

"Oh yes, quite right Grandfather. Do you want to take the TARDIS or shall we go on foot?"

"I'm afraid we'll have to walk, the TARDIS landed quite a way away." The Doctor said sheepishly, not wanting to give away that he'd forgotten where Susan lived.

"Okay I'll lead the way." Said Susan, getting up and grabbing a maroon coat from a hanger in the hallway, pulling it over her body. "It's not that far anyway, if we walk quickly it should only take about half an hour."

Clara and the Doctor followed suit and the three of them soon left and began their trek. As they walked Clara instinctively linked arms with the Doctor, holding his arm with both of hers, effectively hugging it. On the way Susan explained to them that the building was a warehouse which stored Dalek artefacts, there was a second building attached to the life which was a laboratory of sorts for examining and reverse engineering the Dalek's technology.

After about 10 minutes of walking Susan started to walk further ahead than the other two, keen to arrive sooner rather than later.

Clara turned to the Doctor "Look at you being all _Sherlock Holmes_."

"Sherlock!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Now there's a good detective!"

"What, you actually met him?"

"Two different ones actually, funny the way the universe works out like that. One from your time too I might add. But the Original, the one, the books are written about, I know too."

"So was he like the books say?"

"Well yes," The Doctor hesitated. "Apart from he was a she." Clara shrugged her shoulders and stuck her bottom lip out. "And a Lizard."

They ran to catch up with Susan who was almost at the end of the street. Quickly Susan asked the Doctor to recount his travels since she'd last seen him. Clara listened and tried to keep up. She couldn't understand much of what he was saying, but the word "Rose" seemed to come up a lot. No, not just a word, a name. Just as she thought she understood what he was saying, she'd look away and somehow when she turned back, she'd missed half the conversation, even though she could've sworn she'd been listening the whole time.

The closer to the warehouse the worse it got. Clara would turn her head for a split second and by the time she looked back the Doctor and Susan would be miles ahead. The Doctor would have to run back and drag a slighting stunned Clara by the hand to keep her with them. Every time this happened, Clara got more and more paranoid, looking over her shoulder at every possible moment. Of course, this only lead to her getting further behind. As they neared the building, the Doctor became increasingly aware that the was something wrong with Clara, he told her to stay in front of him so he could make sure that she was safe.

Soon they arrived at the gates, there was an eerie silence and the only noise they could hear was the wind making at metal poles of the gate rattle. Susan explained to them that they should enter by the laboratory, as that was where the people had been disappearing from. "Curious," The Doctor remarked. "How many people did you say worked here?"

"Well it varies." Susan said dismissively, she didn't think this was an important question

"Yes, but roughly. Factory of this size, undertaking of this scale, I'd say a good hundred at a minimum."

"Yes, I suppose that's about right."

The Doctor put a finger to his lips, bent over to Susan's height and whispered "For that amount of people, they're a bit quiet don't you think."

Susan gasped, realising what he was saying. Panicking, she rushed to the laboratory door, the Doctor and his companion not far behind her. The door was a twelve inch slab of metal, designed to be impenetrable. In case of emergency, something could be locked in, or locked out. Susan frantically entered the passcode into a keypad by the door, but the system kept shutting her out. Susan banged on the Door with her fist. "Come on, Come on!" She screamed.

Clara gave the Doctor a look to tell him to do something. He mouthed back "How_?" _and Clara continued to glare at him. He put his hand on his Granddaughter's shoulder in an effort to console her. "We'll have to try another way in." She turned around and the Doctor could see tears in her eyes. "Look, whatever's happened to these people, I'll… We'll get them back. I promise."

"Can't you just use your screwdriver on the door?" Clara queried.

"No, I can't" replied the Doctor, who had just finished trying the very thing Clara described. "It's deadlock sealed."

Susan wiped her eyes. "There's a door on the second floor of the warehouse. There's another entrance to the lab from there, and a console where we might be able to override the lockdown if need be."

Susan hurried round the side of the building, to a very thin metal staircase. It looked dangerously unstable and as she walked closer, Clara was sure that it was wobbling and swaying. "Right then," The Doctor spoke and pointed to the stairs. "Ladies first."

"No way." Clara said bluntly. "You're going first to check if it's safe."

"Fine, fine." The Doctor grumbled as he carefully made his way up the stairs, holding the handle. "See, it's perfectly safe." He declared, almost falling down the final step as he said so.

Once the others made it up, the Doctor opened the, less secure, door with his Sonic Screwdriver. He poked his head through; checking of there was anyone there. "Nope" he said to himself, following through with the rest of his body. He reached for a light switch and illuminated the warehouse.

Clara followed after, then Susan. The building was nothing like Clara expected. She expected it to be dark, full of sealed crates all neatly organised, in rows on top of each other, like in Indiana Jones. This was more like a museum, Alien Artefacts were out in the open, scattered about the place, as though someone had been in the process of moving them and examining them.

The Doctor slid down a ladder to get to the ground floor. From here he could get a closer look at the pieces on display. "This isn't all Dalek." He muttered. "Look!" he moved over to a collection of guns, neatly laid out on a table. "This is a Sontaran Blaster. Anyone who's seen a Dalek would know it's couldn't be used by them!" He turned to Susan who was making her way down the ladder with Clara. "Don't have the arms." He imitated a Dalek's suction cupped "hands."

"This isn't right!" Susan surveyed the room. Andrew'd never let this go unguarded, there should be at least 5 people, just here!" She said, pointing over to a big alien saucer."

"You said we need to get into the laboratory, that's our best bet of finding the people. Whoever's taken them must have a reason, they aren't just taking random people, just those in this building." The Doctor browsed the collection of random alien items, looking for any sort of clue.

Clara asked Susan to take her to the nearest security terminal so she could override the lockdown. She was shown to a small half room control centre. There were about fifteen monitors, ten of which showed various different views of the warehouse. Clara could see the Doctor through one of them, still rummaging through the equipment, sniffing and occasionally licking things that he was unsure about.

"Right." Said Clara, more than a little daunted by the amount of data on the screens in front of her. "Not quite the sort of computers I…. erm… learnt to hack, but I should still be able to do it. The basic operating system is still windows, right?"

"Should be, Windows 99 now, not the latest, but they never really change that much. People complained whenever it changed and so they've kept the basic stuff in it since, forever."

"Okay, great." Clara replied, reclining into a swivelling desk chair. "I'll try and get the door open for you." She looked up at the screens, on the second the left she could see the Doctor still licking objects, and sometimes playing with them. "Could you go and see if he's okay? He probably needs company and I'm not there to hold his hand."

Susan found the Doctor inspecting a pile of ash inside a container, apparently collected from Christmas day 2006. "Why would this be here!? Of everything humanity's discovered why this?" Susan wasn't sure if her Grandfather was talking to her or to himself, but she decided to answer anyway.

"Most of the things in this warehouse are taken from the Torchwood archives. They've been collecting since the first Victorian period."

"Figures Torchwood'd be behind this." replied the Doctor. "But none of this has anything to do with the disappearances?"

Susan shook her head. "No, until now, no one working here'd gone missing."

"People vanishing in plain sight, where have I heard that before?" the Doctor spoke to himself as he continued on his way.

"So tell me about Clara," Susan said casually.

"What about her?" The Doctor's head shivered slightly and uncontrollably as he said so.

"Where did you meet her?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you it some other time." Said the Doctor evasively.

"Okay." Said a slightly annoyed Susan. "What does she do?"

"She's a Governess, no sorry, a Nanny." The Doctor corrected himself. "She's great with children." He finished, his mind wondering.

"You do know you're over a thousand years older than her?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" Said the Doctor, genuinely confused.

"I've seen the way you look at her, and the way she looks at you." Remarked Susan.

"Look, we're just friends, that's all that we'll be." _That's a big lie._

"Grandfather, I've known you since I was a little girl, I've spent years just in your company. You may have changed faces, but not all of you has changed, deep down you're the same lonely old man in need of companionship. I know you, and you can't lie to me, even if you lie to yourself."

"It's not just that…it's…I…I…" He couldn't let this happen, not after Rose, after River, too much hurt, it wasn't fair on Clara. There was more than that though, he needed to solve her. Whenever he saw her, he couldn't understand a single thing about her. He couldn't be… he hesitated at the very thought, he couldn't be in love, he didn't know what she was. He gave an exasperated sigh. "Never mind, just not one word of this to Clara young lady." He said in his best Grandfather voice, making Susan giggle.

There was a loud screeching sound, before the monitors dotted around the building flashed to life. Clara's beaming face appeared on them, looking very pleased with herself. "Sorry about the noise, didn't know the mic was on." Clara apologised. "Anyway," She continued as the Doctor as looked around for the camera where she could see him from. "I've got the outer levels of security down, there's a door here that you can probably sonic now."

The Doctor had found the camera he was being watched from and turned to smile at Clara. She burst out laughing. "What?" the Doctor asked.

"Sorry, it's just that your chin looks massive through this lens." Her laughter subdued a little. "So come over and find me, chin boy!" and with that the screens turned off.

They began to walk, then the Doctor had a double take as he realised something. "God, I really hope that she didn't hear us talking earlier."


	4. Chapter 4

**I've taken far too long in getting this up, no excuses, just been doing other things. Anyway, I promise to try and update more regularly from now on.**

* * *

The Doctor and Susan hurried over the the control room where Clara was. She gave them a big grin, feeling very proud of herself. "I've removed the Deadlock seal so it should be easy to open now."

"You think you're so clever, don't you." Jokingly mocked the Doctor.

"Yep, because I am!" Replied Clara. "Now hurry up and sonic open the door."

"Yes Ma'am" The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver with an elaborate swirl of the wrist, and a green glow shot out of it as he pointed it towards the door.

"You know." Said Susan quietly. "Back when I traveled with you you wouldn't use a screwdriver, you'd just get someone else to open the door for you."

"Well yes." Said the Doctor, tilting his head. "That's why I've got Clara over there."

Clara nodded in agreement. "He'd be lost without me."

"Okay, I'll check inside, and see if there's anyone in there first." The Doctor pulled open the steel door, which was less thick on this side than the one by the entrance.

"No need." Clara span round on her chair and pointed to the screens. "I can see inside, the pictures are a bit pixilated but it's clear, nothin' moving, and the scanners didn't detect any life signs."

"Atta girl." The Doctor said, ruffling Clara's hair. Grabbing her hand and pulling her up. "Let's go then."

The second room was very much unlike the first one, most objects were neatly organised to the side of the room. In the centre was a large table surrounded by scientific equipment, in the centre was the headpiece of a Dalek. On the opposite side of the room there was a large door, not a secure one like the one on the outside of the building and the one they entered by, but just an ordinary door.

"What's through there?" Clara asked, pointing to the door on the far side.

"More rooms just like this, there's a ladder to the basement as well, it's got pretty much the same layout down there." Susan was beginning to once again get used to this, she had forgotten what it was like traveling with her Grandfather. Maybe it was good that he left her behind.

The Doctor was busy, scanning the room with his screwdriver. "No!" he shouted, hitting the screwdriver, before stroking and apologising to it. "It's picking up 4 people in this room." He counted himself, Clara and Susan, pointing his finger at each as he mouthed the number. "And I'm positive there's just 3 of us!"

"Well." Clara stressed the word. "Could it be traces from people who were in here?"

"No, the signs are clear, it's here and now." He paused. "And it's been here for quite a while."

"How can you even tell! That thing doesn't even have a screen, it just lights up and makes a noise! For all I know you could just be making up everything it's 'telling' you!"

"So does this mean that the workers are still alive?" Susan asked hopefully.

"Quite possibly, but I just don't get it. There's no signs of a struggle, nothing remotely dangerous, except that head, and nothing that could have made them invisible." The Doctor, at a loss, paced around the room searching for any clues he could find.

"There's another whole lot of rooms to search, we can come back later, we cold find something useful elsewhere." Said Susan.

"Yes, right." Said the Doctor. Just as Susan and Clara went through the door he carefully followed them, walking backwards and taking one last long hard look at the room.

The second room resembled the first, however instead of a Dalek's head plate, there was a Daleknium coil stretched across several poles. The only sound that could be heard in the room was a slow whiring sound. With his acute sense of hearing the Doctor quickly identified this as coming from the small motors within the poles stretching the coil.

There was a chair and desk to one side. The Doctor went over to investigate further, picking up a notebook and pen as he did so. Quickly flicking through the book the Doctor saw exactly what he expected. Analysis of the coil under various stress testing, what reacts with it, the force at which it expands and contracts. All were neatly organised in tables and graphs spread throughout the book.

He tossed his screwdriver to Susan. "Scan this room, tell me how many life signs are being read."

Susan moved from corner to corner, carefully scanning the room. Clara was surprised to see that Susan could understand what the screwdriver was saying. _Must be a Time Lord... No wait, Galifreyan thing. _

"It only detects me you and Clara." Said Susan, disappointed. She carefully handed it back to her grandfather. "You can see for yourself."

The Doctor glanced up at the Screwdriver and placed it on the desk, returning to analyse what was in the book. About half way the writing started getting more scruffy and rushed looking. One page appeared to have a scribbled out drawing on it, with the caption. "Who drew this!" Further on the words "It's watching. Don't forget." we're circled. An arrow pointed to it and in the same hand writing said. "I didn't write this." The rest of the book was covered various words filling each page. The phrases "Don't Forget.", "It's here" and "Remember" continually appeared. The Doctor tried writing each phrase on the free space in the hopes that something would happen, or some hidden. Earning would pop out, but he got nothing.

There was a small thud sound and Clara could've sworn she'd saw the door open, but it was in the same closed position it had always been. "Doctor? How much longer are you going to be, this place feels all wrong. It's like we've been followed."

The Doctor's screwdriver flashed for a second. Alarmed he bolted upright. "Clara! Susan! Get behind me!" He extended his arms, shielding them behind him as he slowly moved towards the next door and into the third room. "Right." he whispered. "When I say run, run."

"What's wrong?" Susan asked, sticking behind her grandfather.

"There's something else in here now. I don't know what, but it wasn't here before. Whatever it is, this is what took your coworkers. It needs the Dalek technology."

With his arms outstreched, the Doctor's sleeves rolled up slightly, exposing the bare flesh of his wrists. From behind his arms Clara noticed something different. "Hey." She remarked. "What's that on your arm?"

The Doctor looked down to his right wrist. Tally marks.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, so it's been even an longer wait for this one, I'm really, really sorry... I've been away and busy with work, now things are dying down I'll have more time for this.**

* * *

"What is it Grandfather?" Susan asked the Doctor, she couldn't see anything there.

"It's a Silence. Just one, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous judging by the amount of people who've gone missing."

"Okay, that's really useful to know and all, but how about you give us some proper information, hard facts!" said Clara.

"Well that's the problem." The Doctor said as though he was trying to worm his way out of Clara's scorn. "I can't actually remember."

"What do you mean you 'can't remember'!" Clara was clearly unimpressed.

"That's what they do! It's their whole stmuck really." The Doctor scanned the room trying to see where the creature was. "They make you forget ever meeting them, you could've seen thousands of them and never even realised it."

"If they're this invincible how' you defeat them last time."

"Who said anything about me defeating them?"

"Well these aliens don't sound friendly, and I've been around with you long enough to know when you meet a bad guy they don't usually survive for long."

Clara's words hurt the Doctor, he'd had many people point out the damage he did to the people and places he visited. But hearing Clara say it hurt nevertheless. "Well...I..I...I..." The Doctor stuttered. "I always give them a chance."

Clara attempted to cheer the Doctor up, telling him that it wasn't a bad thing, but his mood didn't seem any different.

"Right now we have more important matters Grandfather. If you did beat them before they must have a weakness, and we need to escape, quickly."

"Of course, right you are Susan. There's only one of them here and it's in front of us, we just need to back out very slowly, keeping our eyes where we've been, then it can't sneak up on us."

"Doctor" Clara whispered into his ear. "The door we came in's on the other side of the room."

"Yes, I know, I was just thinking about that." He turned to Susan while carefully shuffling backwards through the opposite door. "Is there another way out through this door?"

"I don't know!" Said Susan, her calmer than usual composure faltering

"I don't think we have a choice now! That thing's between us and the door!" All three were moving backwards down the corridor at a steady pace now.

"This isn't going to work." Said the Doctor to the others after walking backwards into a wall for the eleventh time. "You two face the right way and direct me, I'll stay like this, keep guard."

They did as the Doctor said, and they escaped through the maze-like pathways of the Laboratory.

"Is it actually chasing us? I haven't actually seen it, and neither have you." Clara asked the Doctor, who kept his head as still as he could.

"I'm sure of it. And we might have seen it, just forgotten it."

"How does it work? Does it only move when you're not looking at it, is that why it's not come?"

"Don't be stupid Clara, that's the Weeping Angels, they're completely different."

Clara rolled her eyes "Of course."

"No, they're more like..." the Doctor flapped his hands trying to think of a comparison Clara would get. "SLENDERMAN! They're like slenderman! They _can_ move when you're looking at them, they just choose not to most of the time, makes them seem more menacing."

"What, just standing there?" Clara turned a corner and shouted "Left!" at which the Doctor moved to Clara's right and banged his head on a wall.

"Argh" he exclaimed in pain. "What was that! This way's my right!"

"Well I clearly meant my left! That's what we've been going on so far!"

The Doctor wanted to correct her, but before he could begin he was stopped by the sound of Susan screaming.

Distracted with Clara the Doctor had taken his eye off the corridor they had just passed through. When he lifted his head up he saw it.

"Now Susan." He said in a calming voice. "Don't panic, Don't look away or you'll forget it, keep your eyes on it." The Doctor walked closer to the creature until he was almost touching it. "What do you want?" The question was rhetorical. Rarely, if ever, did the Silence speak. One might even assume that that was the reason for their name, but they'd be wrong. The Doctor turned to Clara. "Take a good look, you'll forget him soon enough."

"That's NOT any help!" Clara was careful not to take her eyes off the creature, she didn't want it tampering with her mind. She did as the Doctor instructed and realised, or rather remembered, something. "Earlier today… I saw it! On the way here it was following us."

The Doctor circles the unmoving Silent. "So, you've been following me. Following Clara." The Doctor's tone became harsher. "Well! Here I am!"

"Grandfather!"

"It doesn't want anything to do with either of you. It used you to lure me here. Those people disappearing, bait!" Turning to the Silent, the Doctor was fuming now. "And you should never, EVER, try to trap me!" He calmed down and pointed behind his back "Susan, Clara, close your eyes."

"What?" Clara hesitated, where Susan obliged without question.

"I said close your eyes, you have to trust me." Clara shut her eyes, quickly the Doctor burst out. "Don't open them again! Now turn around." Both of them did as he said, the Doctor continued facing the Silent still. "Now tell me, what does a Silent look like?"

"How should I know!?" Clara replied. "You can't even remember what they looked like, I haven't even seen one!"

"Good, okay, you can open your eyes, but don't turn around. There's a Silent right here…" The Doctor caught Clara as she began to turn. "Uh! Don't!" The Doctor explained to the two what they had seen.

"So why can't we look at it then?" Susan asked.

"Because I need to describe it to you two!"

It was Clara who replied with the next question. "How will that help us? We still won't remember anything!"

"You two are going to leave this building, the entrance we tried earlier should be open now. You have to tell people about this, warn them what it looks like."

"Like they'd believe us if we told them some weird monster was attacking them."

"Clara, this is the 22nd century. People here still remember the Dalek invasion, of course they'll believe you." He tossed his psychic paper to Susan. "Just in case take this, you can be from any authority you choose."

"But what about you Grandfather?"

"Me? I'll be fine, it only wants me, and so it'll be safer without you. Those people it took could still be alive, I'll find them." He quickly describe every detail of the creature before him, from the suit it was wearing to the "mouth" if that was what it was. "Now go!" The Doctor shouted upon hearing a sincere lack of movement behind him.

The Doctor heard the sound of two people running and relaxed more. "Right, so what are you doing here, you should be dead."

"So. Should. You." Came a hollow voice in front of him.

"I don't like to brag, but I am a master of the impossible. Death? Psh, like that's gonna stop me." The Doctor stayed talking with a relaxed voice, when it was only his life in danger he didn't have so much to worry about. "But enough about me, why did you want me here, if you thought I'd die before I got to… to Trenzalore" He paused at the word, he had his suspicions about what it was, but didn't know for sure. "You didn't bring me here to kill me, you must need something off me."

The Silent remained, well, Silent. "I don't get it, you were in the footage of the moon landing, your whole race on earth should be extinct, you should be dead if you ever set foot on earth, killed on sight." He stopped himself again. "Unless…" He hit his head. "Argh! The Dalek's erased everything, there probably isn't even any of that footage left."

The Silent made a sound akin to a laugh, unnerving the Doctor.

"What happened to that TARDIS you were trying to build, oh that's right, me! So don't you laugh at this!"

The Silent laughed again before finally speaking. "Thanks to your coming here, that time machine is now ready. We can terminate you at any point in time we wish."

"Why all the hassle?! Why not just kill me now, go on! Or is there one of those weird code things that you go by, you can't kill me directly yourself? Why, are you scared."

"You misunderstand me Doctor. We do not hate you, nor do we desire destruction, all we desire is to avoid your fall."

"So what!" The Doctor was angry once more. "You want to kill me to save me?! Is that it!"

"You could do worse than die. We…"

The Doctor cut him off. "Sorry to interrupt probably the most talkative Silent I have ever met, but did you just say 'we'?" He stared at the Silent's blank face as it dawned upon him. "CLARA!"

* * *

**Next time I take this long, send me a message and pester me to write more, I'll try (Although if I don't reply, I might be away.)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, it's been a long while, you probably thought I forgot about updating, didn't you! Well fear not, I wouldn't just abandon a project without telling you. Anyway I wrote this chapter when I was quite tired, so forgive any errors please and I'll try to correct them if you point them out.**

* * *

"Why do you not attempt to escape." the disembodied voice of the silence questioned.

Clara and Susan hadn't been running for long when they came to a junction.

"Through here!" Susan called and led the way. Clara's memory from after turning left was hazy at best, in hindsight, she presumed this must be due to the Silence surrounding her, but then again until being grabbed by one she had no reason to assume there were more other than the one the Doctor was dealing with.

"Why are you not trying to flee." The silence repeated itself, Clara's gaze focused on the Silence's mouth, or lack thereof.

"Because you're not going to kill me." Clara bluffed with false confidence. "You would've done that before, you obviously need me and Susan alive for something, and." She stopped. "Susan?" Clara called from her 'prison'. Her prison consisted of 4 Silence guards surrounding her and stopping her from moving in any direction. She heard no reply and called again, a little louder this time. In the panic of the situation she lost track of where Susan went, Clara could only hope that Susan had managed to avoid capture.

"You are still of value dead." Another impossible voice from the mouth-less monster behind her.

"I know you need the Doctor, I'm not scared because I know he's going to stop you, he's gonna rescue me, and you know that too, he's done so to everyone else. Your lives, all of you, you focus your whole life on killing this man, for generations you've hunted him." The words seemed to flow out of Clara's mouth, she didn't know where this was coming from. She didn't know any of this stuff before. "You've seen what he can do, you've heard what he can do, so why don't you just save yourselves the trouble and just give up now!"

The Silence stared at Clara, motionless. "Soon we will not have failed."

"But you already have!" Cried an exasperated Clara.

The two Silence in front of Clara looked at each other, seemingly not needed to talk to communicate with each other. They grabbed Clara's arms with such force that she was worried they might snap off. Clara's vision wavered. She fell into a sea of blackness.

* * *

"We" Said the Doctor. "So there's more of you out there?" Once more the Silence remained Silent. "I'll take that as a yes, now back to important issues, I'm feeling in a rather Sherlock-y mood so allow me some deductions."

The Doctor walked right up to the Silence pushing his chest out in a provocative manor. "You must still only be small in number you've only had since the Dalek invasion to regrow your order on earth, am I right?" Still no reply. "Now you say you can kill me at any point you wish, but you can't, how do I know that? Because I'm still standing here. The only place you believe you can kill me is at lake silencio when I was meant to die, that was a fixed point, the whole purpose of your order. You and whatever's left of the silence happen to discover that I've survived lake silencio, and..." he paused. "Oh dear, that means your order failed, you don't get another shot at killing me." he said in a patronising tone of voice.

"That will no longer be true."

"Oh, finally decided to open your mouth, hole, or whatever thing it is?" The Doctor circled the Silence as he talked until his back was facing the way he came. "No, I think I see what you want. You tried to build your own TARDIS, but you failed, serves you right for making such a lousy rip off. Now a fake TARDIS isn't as good as the real thing by a long way, so now you want to steal mine?!"

"You... Are correct."

"But the TARDIS won't open for you, you need me to get her open for you." The Doctor was now slowly shuffling backwards. "You know I'd never do that willingly..."

"So we took your companion." The Silence finished the Doctor's sentence.

"Right, Clara." A pang of guilt surged through the Doctor.

"If you give us your TARDIS we will let her go."

There was no way the Doctor would do that, even for Clara. Giving the Silence his TARDIS would be suicide for him, not only that but doing that to save Clara wouldn't make any sense, if he died at the lake he would never have been able to stop the Great intelligence uploading Clara to the wifi, she'd be dead either way.

The Doctor bounced backwards. "You want me?" He taunted the Silence, "I'll come, if you can catch me!"

The Silence gave chase at a faster pace than the Doctor expected, not a running speed, the Doctor couldn't picture a running Silence, but still faster than he'd seen a silence go before. He lured the Silence back through the pathways they had been through, formulating a plan in his head.

"It is no use Doctor you cannot escape, you have to look away from me to escape this building, in doing so you will forget you have to escape. It is only a matter of time."

"That's only a half truth though." Said the Doctor, reaching into a crate marked 'late 20th century' and pulling out an old (for Clara's time, the Doctor was used to thinking of things relative to how Clara would see them) Camera.

Snap! A small photo instantly popped out the top. "And now all I have to do it this..." The Doctor pulled out a pair of reading glasses from his coat pocket, placed them on his face, and between his left eye and the glass, inserted the newly developed photo. "Now the quality's not great, I'll give you that, but it's probably recognisable enough for me to remember you, let me check." he spun his head, then quickly turned back. "Yep, it works. Right, so you were saying I can't escape if I turn my back on you? Watch me!" Now being able to see where he was going the Doctor bolted for the door and locked it behind him with a blast of is Sonic Screwdriver. "That ought'a hold it."

* * *

The Doctor returned to the TARDIS with the paper still firmly wedged in his glasses. He frantically pressed buttons on the console, and the screen turned into a copy of the CCTV from the lab/ warehouse.

"Clara. Clara, Clara, Clara." The Doctor said as he looked through the multiple screens trying desperately to find where the silence were holding her.

"Why are you not trying to flee?" he saw the silence interrogating Clara as he watched the screen.

_Susan's not there, she must've escaped. _Thought the Doctor. _First good news of the day._

"I know you need the Doctor, I'm not scared because I know he's going to stop you, he's gonna rescue me, and you know that too," The Doctor had a rush of pride as he heard this, and his face turned a shade redder.

"I will Clara, I promise you."

* * *

Clara regained consciousness in a dark room. Her eyes adjusted slowly to the light as she thought she heard a voice calling her. The room was dark, yet there was a dim light in the ceiling, it looked as though it were an old classroom. There were no Silence in the room with Clara and she was free to move.

A door with a tiny smeared glass window at the top was Clara's only view of the world out of this room. She twisted the handle, and as she expected it was locked. She banged on the door trying to attract someone, anyone's attention. "Help! Let me out! You can't do this! Doctor!" the pushed her head into the glass window in frustration, her nose pressed against the glass. The hideous face of one of the silence looked back at her, if it wasn't for the glass she would be touching it. Clara flinched and jumped back at the thought.

The creature tilted its head to one side as it peered through. Its head facing Clara rather than its direction of travel, it stayed at the window, though it seemed to not even see Clara.

_That thing just isn't natural!_

_It may be an alien, but it's a bit mean to call it unnatural, it probably thinks you're unnatural._

Clara was startled, that thought definitely wasn't her's

"Doctor?" She said out loud, timidly.

_I'm here._ The voice in Clara's thoughts replied. _Don't say it out loud, or the Silence might get suspicious._

_So it was you who put those words into my mind before! How come I'm hearing you. _Clara thought her message this time.

_Your mind's linked to the telepathic circuits in the TARDIS, and as I've plugged myself into the TARDIS, I can enter your thoughts._

_Wait...you've plugged yourself into the TARDIS?! _Clara realised something. _You're in my thoughts!? Get out! Get out! Get out! _

_Argh! _Came the pained thought. _Don't think so loud!_

_There's private stuff there...Stuff that you shouldn't be looking at!_

_I can only access your upper thought processes, as long as you don't think about something consciously, I won't see it._

_Great, as soon as you say something like that I'm going to think of stuff that I don't want you to see._

_Well stop thinking of it then!_

_It's not that easy! _Clara paced up and down the class room.

_Look I need you to..._ The voice stopped once again. _Clara Oswald!_ The Doctor's thoughts were in a scandalised tone.

Embarrassed, Clara quickly tried to think of something else. _It's just one of those weird thoughts, it's not anything serious. _Clara thought, but unintentionally added _it is_ to the end, when she was trying so hard not to.

_Well...um...uh...I...I..._ The Doctor's thoughts were flustered. Look, _We can talk about this later, do you have any clue as to where you are?_

_I'm in some sort of classroom._

_I need specifics Clara, a school name?_

Clara moved back to the door.

_Uh, it says room 302._

_Well that's something, but there's thousands of schools in London, I need something a bit more than that._

Clara rushed to the back of the room and picked up an exercise book, she looked at the inside cover. _Coal Hill school, it says property of Coal Hill School!_

_Hah, well that's nice._

_What's nice?_

_"This is where I first fell in love with humanity."_

"Hold on." Clara said "I didn't just think what you said, I actually heard it that time."

"Just stay still." Clara could hear the Wroom of the TARDIS. "I'm materialising her around you. I'm bringing you in."

From across the room the Doctor was sitting by the console, with some paper stuck in his glasses and a strange hat that connected by a cable to the TARDIS.

The Doctor gave Clara a big welcoming smile as she walked up to him, but she wasn't smiling. She forcefully ripped the helmet off the Doctor's head and flung it against the wall, shattering it. "NEVER GO INTO MY THOUGHTS AGAIN!" She shouted at the Time Lord. "THAT NEVER HAPPENED! OKAY?"

"Yep, right, sure, of course." Said the Doctor, cowering backwards slightly.

"Good." said Clara, returning to her normal pleasant demeanor. "So have you met up with Susan yet, the Silence didn't capture her with me."

"No." Said the Doctor wistfully, "I looked but she isn't on any of the building's CCTV."

As though responding to the word the TARDIS' screen flashed to life.

"Doctor." the Silence were on the screen.

"Oh give it a rest, you're not having the TARDIS, if I gave it to you I'd die. Well I'd die at an earlier period of time, therefore this exact version of me would just never have existed as I would be dead before now."

"You do not want to die." the hollow voice said.

"Give the man a medal." The Doctor slowly clapped.

"We have here the workers that you came to rescue." The camera zoomed out and the Doctor could see about 40 men and women all huddled together in fear, surrounded by Silence. "For every hour that passes in which we do not have our TARDIS, another one dies."

"No." the Doctor muttered, quietly yet defiantly.

A young lady was thrown in front of the screen, bruised and battered. She had a gag over her mouth and one eye seemed to have been hit so hard that they may never have opened again.

"Oh god." Clara recognised who it was, so did the Doctor.

The Doctor shouted at the screen, "SUSAN!" she didn't show any signs of recognition that she heard him.

"One hour has passed since we issued our first demand."

"No!"

"We mean what we tell you. One will die!"

"NO!"

The silence raised its arm to Susan. Bolts of blue lightning shot out.

"NOOOOO!"

It was too late, all that remained of Susan was a pile of ashes on the floor.

* * *

**Right, the next chapter will be the end of the Silence plot, I'll continue to update this further and add more between the episode stories.**

I promise (I actually promised this time) that the next chapter will be up sooner than usual.


	7. Chapter 7

**I said that this one would be quicker than normal. I lied.**

**Real life keeps rearing it's ugly head. Plus I've had a few other projects that I've been working on, slowing this one down. If you want to contact me, the easiest place is probably my Tumblr, "sam-is-obsessed" Anyway this is the final chapter of this story arc. There will be more, but this chapter has a resolution unlike the others.**

* * *

Still with his eyepatch glasses on, the Doctor's screams echoed throughout the TARDIS as the screen looked over at him, she'd already lost all memory of what she'd just seen. "Doctor?" He was sitting away from her, hunched over and face covered by his hands. "What's wrong?" she put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"NO!" The Doctor yelled, slapping Clara's hand away, his eyes bloodshot and voice hoarse. Upon seeing the expression on Clara's face he paused. The Doctor couldn't tell if it was one of shock, fear or worry - probably a mixture of all three. "She's gone...and it's all my fault." There was no longer any anger in the man's voice, just resigned sadness. "You'll remember." he passed her a pair of eyepatch glasses like his.

"Huh? There's actually a reason for you wearing that, I thought it was just another accessory that you grew an attachment to." She took the glasses from him, without looking at them she continued. "Wait, this is a picture of one of those things right, and...oh God." she clasped her hands to her mouth. Before she had even seen the Silence she knew what she would remember. "I'm, I'm..." For once Clara was at a loss for words, she'd lost her mum only a few years ago she should know what to say, but perhaps understanding just made it harder. She sat next to him in silence, there wasn't anything she felt she could do other than just being there for him.

Minutes past before the Doctor finally raised his head once more. Clara looked at him. "Is there anything we can do." There was a fire in the Doctor's eyes, a spark of determination and righteous anger.

"We're going to put a stop to this. I promised Susan I'd get everyone out of there unharmed and I'll be damned if I don't." He straightened himself up and dusted down his jacket. "I have a plan." his sudden change in attitude concerned Clara, alien or not, how could he recover so quick. "You'll need to fly the TARDIS."

"What!?" Clara exclaimed, the TARDIS paralleled her, letting out it's own sound of complaint.

"Don't worry, you're not going to have to properly fly it, I'll show you about that later, I'll set the coordinates, all you have to do is deliver a package for me, the TARDIS will sort the rest out for you."

"Not to sound obvious, but it's not as if she's that fond of me, what makes you think she'll listen to me." Said Clara, carefully using the Doctor's preferred pronoun for the TARDIS.

"Just tell her it's for Susan if she protests." The Doctor pressed a series of buttons on the console in quick succession, a disk flew out of a slot and the Doctor caught it in his hand. "You'll end up inside the warehouse, and before you ask, yes it's before the Silence arrived here." The Doctor explained his plan in detail to Clara. "Good luck, I'm counting on you." He finished. The Doctor left the console and opened the TARDIS doors, they were now back at the building where Susan had taken them. "I've got an appointment to keep."

* * *

The Doctor stormed to the front entrance of the laboratory and gave the door a heavy knock with his fist. "I believe you're expe-" The door slid open automatically before he could finish. "-citing me." no one was on the other side, just a long, dark corridor.

_Well this is obviously a trap._

The Doctor went in anyway. He made it to the end of the corridor without any problems or ambushes. "You're not doing a very good job with this whole bad guy base thing. You're meant to have some guards, or booby traps or something!" The Doctor taunted, but his voice was deadly serious.

There was only one path the Doctor was allowed to take, he turned round corners but each time all but one door was barricaded up. He was being forced down a predetermined route, not a situation a Time Lord liked. He stopped when he finally reached a lift. "I suppose this will have to do." said the Doctor, his voice a mocking, spiteful tone.

The Doctor was carried down by the lift into a familiar room. "Oh goodie." The Doctor said with sarcastic joy. "I wondered when this was going to turn up again." he was inside a replica of a. TARDIS control centre. One he'd had two too many encounters with (Out of a total of two encounters.) "Sooo! III'm heeere!" Demented, the Doctor yelled, his arms open wide.

"Where is it?"

"I don't see it."

"The Doctor lies!" a group of silence revealed themselves from out of the shadows. "Where is your TARDIS?"

"Oh don't worry about that, it's nearby." The Doctor casually lent against one of the four pieces of the console. "But how about you release the hostages first then we can talk." The silence stared at him. "What? You don't think I'll keep my word? You have me here! You could just kill me right now if I didn't keep my end of the deal. Except," With mock supplies the Doctor gasped. "you seem to have, god knows why, this weird idea that you can't kill me after lake silenceo!"

"You talk of deals, what deal has been made?"

"That's not important." Said the Doctor avoiding the subject. "I need to know that the workers are safe." the silence made no reply. "Now I know that you're not just going to take me to them but, hey let's try and find some middle ground, show me evidence that they're still alive, then we can sort out a deal."

The silence looked from the Doctor to each other. Two of their number grabbed the Doctor by the arms a pulled him to the elevator. "I can still walk, you haven't killed me yet!"

* * *

The Doctor emerged from the lift followed by two of the Silents. He arrived at next to the computer room where he'd first left Clara. The supposed leader extended a long four fingered arm in the direction of the computer screen. With a flash of light from his hands the CCTV switched to the same image the Doctor had seen in the TARDIS.

"We let the humans go as soon as we see your TARDIS." the Silent looked to his partner. "It's not here."

"Ah yes, I did say it was nearby...in fact it's right here." Interjected the Doctor. "You didn't specify however, when you wanted it here. Currently it's almost exactly where we're standing, just a few decades behind us. Well, I say currently but it's not currently anywhere but it will be in our time in...ooh, 5 minutes I dare say." The silence didn't have the faces to show much emotion, but if they could, the Doctor was sure they wouldn't be looking very happy. "So as soon as the TARDIS arrives, you release the people. All of them!"

"We knew you would chose to save the human prisoners over yourself."

The Doctor made a pondering sound and plonked himself in the chair, one let crossed over the other and hand upon his chin. "Seeing as we've still got a few minutes till she gets here why don't we have a chat. It's okay, you're going to kill me before I get to here, so technically this conversation would never even have happened." The Silent did not protest and the Doctor took this as a sign that he could continue. "There's a couple of questions that have been bothering me. Firstly 'Silents' or 'Silence'?"

"We are the Silents, our order is the Silence."

"Right, right with you. Secondly, and be honest here, do you know why you can't kill me after Lake Silenceo?

"No."

"So it's just some stupid rule that you blindly follow. Finally why are you so determined to kill me?"

"Silence must fall, Doctor. Silence must fall when the question is asked."

"You think I don't know that!? Do you think I don't know what Trenzalore means! And to answer... No way in hell would I ever do that. There's NOTHING I wouldn't sacrifice to stop that from happening!"

"Your actions here would indicate otherwise." Said the Silent.

"What do you mean? Said the Doctor, who was quickly interrupted by a ringing sound. "Sorry about this." He reached into his bigger on the inside pockets and pulled out an early telephone, attached to a chord.

"Alright, I've handed over the disk, you told me to phone you after that. So what now?"

"Excellent timing Clara, I wasn't sure how long I could keep these guys talking for." Said the Doctor. "Can you place the spare copy..."He held the last syllable of 'copy' as he looked around the room. The Doctor looked at a slot behind the desk. "Place it in the gap between the desk and the wall, okay? No one should find it there."

Clara didn't speak for a minute then returned to the phone. "Done." She said just as one silence sent a jolt of lightning to the Doctor's phone, frying the circuits.

"Oi, do you mind!" Said the Doctor with a jokingly irritated voice. "I was in the middle of a conversation there!"

"What is the meaning of this Doctor!"

"Now..." He said with a sly smile on his face. "I think it'd be easier to show you."

* * *

The Doctor reached behind the desk where he instructed Clara to place the DVD. Without any protest from the Silence he placed the disk into the computer, immediately it started up.

"One small step for man..."

A silence cut in on the screen. "You should kill us all on sight!"

"One giant leap for mankind." The video ended.

"Confused? Allow me to explain." The Doctor stood on the chair here to make himself above the Silents. "The original footage was lost. And properly lost, not like when the BBC used to lose videos, I mean there was literally nothing left, no copies, no pictures, no sound, nothing. The Daleks destroyed it all. This allowed you to come back to this planet."

The Silents looked at each other and were apparently communicating in some form.

"Now I'm just guessing here that you came back during the Dalek occupation. After all even Daleks, especially the ones from around this time period, think before they shoot. The second they took their eyes off you they'd forget, and without that footage, no one would know to kill you on sight." More of the Silence were congregating in the small room around the Doctor. "Still, you would have had to have been careful while the Daleks were still around and some people might still remember watching a recording of the moon landing. So by my reckoning you've probably been here for about 30 - 20 years. Just before the time my friend went back to."

One of the number of Silence stepped forward, starting to understand what the Doctor was saying. "We have failed. We must kill him now or else all will pay." With that he shot out a disintegrating blast that struck the Doctor right in the chest.

The blast went straight through him, like a ghost. The Doctor laughed. "Yes! Clara Oswald, you beauty!" He punched the air. "You wanted to go back and kill me before now, if you did that I, as I am now, would cease to exist. You would be erasing me from time! Well guess what's happening to you! You know that I said you made a big mistake earlier? Well this one was bigger, You do NOT mess with my family!" Said the Doctor in a triumphant rage. "A good word to some people I know from the old days and Clara can get that footage back into the public domain. Actually, 'did' and 'got' are better words there." He shrugged. "Time travel."

The silence were fading in and out of reality, desperately shooting electricity to no success. But the Doctor was completely ignoring them, instead he focused on the CCTV screen. Where the hostages had once been there was now nothing. The Doctor smiled in relief as the familiar groaning sound echoed throughout the room.

* * *

Clara and the Doctor walked around the now busy warehouse, the Doctor still wearing his Silence glasses. All those who the Silence had kidnapped were back, as if nothing happened.

"Do they remember anything of what happened?" Clara asked.

"No, The Silence were never alive here. Their actions never happened, so they never took all these people, from their point of view they were never kidnapped." The Doctor was impatiently looking around, distracted.

"You'll have to explain more on the TARDIS, I still don't get all of this."

"Look!" Snapped the Doctor. "It's simple really, I was too involved in stopping the Dalek's invasion in the first place, this is part of my own personal timeline, I couldn't cross it so I sent you instead."

Clara held her hands up and stepped back. "Okay, so why so angsty?" The Doctor rushed off away from Clara. "Hey! I haven't finished with you!"

"Susan!" Shouted the Doctor, catching his Granddaughter off guard and pulling her tight to his chest. He was almost too scared to let go of her for fear of losing her. Clara caught up and let out an 'ah' seeing both why the Doctor had been so on edge and why he'd rushed off.

"Grandfather? I...I can't remember what happened." Her voice was as though she was in a trance. "I was running with Clara, from that thing you said about and then..."

"It's okay, you're safe." Said the Doctor, pulling away slightly so that he and Susan could speak properly. "So are all the workers.

"Hang on, how come Susan remembers but none of the workers do?"

"Susan's a time traveller, and moreover a Gallifreyan. Changes your mind a bit, time travel."

"Um, Grandfather?" Susan said hesitantly. "What's the reason you're wearing those odd glasses for?"

"I didn't have a lot of time okay, I had to think on my feet!" Said the Doctor defensively.

Clara joined in. "But why not something cooler, like an eyepatch?"

"Nooooo. No, no, no, no, no. There are many things that are cool, Bowties, Fezzes, even Stetsons, but eyepatches... I've had bad experiences with those. Eyepatches are definitely not cool, a bit like monks actually."

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Mmm." The Doctor grunted.

He and Susan were back on the TARDIS, Susan had gone home and the two of them (or three of them if you count the TARDIS.) we're alone again. Clara walked out of one of the many rooms in the TARDIS back to the console, carrying two cups of tea. The doctor was sat on a step, looking down at his legs as he swing them back and forth.

"It's just, you haven't said a word and we've been back for almost ten minutes now."

"It's noth..." before he could finish that sentence he saw Clara raise an eyebrow. The Time Lord let out a sigh and reluctantly came clean. "I've just been doing some thinking."

"Well, that's not exactly a new thing for you." Said Clara, sitting down next to the Time Lord.

"I..." he stuttered. "I don't think I'll be able to see Susan again." Clara opened her mouth to talk, but the Doctor interrupted her. "I've already meddled with time too much here, another paradox and I might blow up half of London!"

"Then you'll just have to be careful, or, or you could go somewhere else instead of London!"

With a sad smile the Doctor laughed. "And I definitely won't see her again with this face, that's a given." The Doctor dismissively waved his hand. "And don't bother asking me to explain why anymore!" he held his face in his hands, just about holding back the tears, "I just found her again..."

"Right, that settles it then." Clara bolted upright. "I'm not going to leave you here alone when you're like this."

"Clara, I think that I just..."

"Shush, you're not going to argue. It'd be bad of me to not stay." For once the TARDIS seemed to agree with her and made a happy sound (if you could call it happy) "And drink your tea before it gets cold."

* * *

**So that's it for now, I've got a few more chapters planned, hopefully 2 more before the 50th and another 1 or 2 before Christmas.**


End file.
